


Highschool is Hell

by herzl1897



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Minor mentions of murder, Tumblr: Writing-prompt-s, a bit pedantic/dramatic, decided to freewrite a bit, its pretty short, reads kind of weird, the SATs, thought it was cool, y'know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 08:02:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21334915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herzl1897/pseuds/herzl1897
Summary: What happens when a town gains the odd quirk that when someone is murdered, their knowledge passes to their killer? What happens when the teenagers of this town need to take the SATs? Is anyone safe?
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Kudos: 1





	Highschool is Hell

**Author's Note:**

> I was freewriting and came up with this so... here it is.

Saying that high school was hell used to be a quaint phrase that hyperbolized the experience for students. A more accurate phrase nowadays would probably be that high school sends you to hell.

The day George Tolliver accidentally hit Seroy Lewis with his car, he learned the consequences of murder. Or rather the benefit. It didn’t take long for a few more observant kids to notice what had happened and after that is was only a matter of time when word spread.

Soon every student in town knew: killing someone would give you their knowledge.

SAT week became a bloodbath that year. Over 200 students were killed. The body count of the SATs rose exponentially each year. Soon, no student could remember a time when they murdered their peers for something as trivial as a number.

Then one “out-of-the-box” thinker changed the game for good.

“What if, I killed the proctor?” Damien Adams suggested, practically under his breath. His girlfriend, Emily Marquez, whipped her head around to glare at him.

“That’s not how we do this, Damien. You know that. We’ve only lasted this long because we keep the targets off of our backs. If you knew the answers you’d be dead in minutes.”

“But, what if-“

“But nothing, Damien. Keep your head down and we may just survive this.” Emily cut him off. She glared at him, her thick eyebrows furrowed deeply. Damien smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

“Ok, Ok. Forget I even said it.” She eyed him suspiciously for a moment, before relaxing and returning to her drawing. Damien figured she would have preferred to be reading, but outward signs of intelligence were dangerous, and they both knew it.

Their SAT came around and Damien and Emily took it together. They took their seats in the cramped classroom with the remaining 30 or so peers. It was silent, but there was an understanding that everyone in that room had killed to be there, perhaps that was the reason each student refused to make eye contact and stared ahead at the test proctor. Said man was a balding 40-year-old. He looked tired, evident from the creases beneath his eyes and general slump of his shoulders. He delivered the packages and allowed the students to begin the test.

When they returned from the first break, they happened upon a very dead test proctor. The authorities took the body and the proctor was replaced, but the test continued.

After the booklets had been handed in, Damien waited for Emily under their usual tree.

“How was it?” She asked him.

“Why did you do it, Emily?” His tone was sad, despondent.

“Do what?”

“Why did you kill that proctor.” Damien’s eyes were red-rimmed and pinched at the corners, forming wrinkles that aged him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Emily insisted, but she sounded a bit breathless.

“You crossed a line! He probably had a family, kids!”

“It was YOUR IDEA in the first place!” She snapped.

“But I didn’t because I thought you were right!” A tear escaped Damien’s eye as his cheeks reddened with fury.

“Let’s not think about this anymore, we could get in real trouble if anyone found out.” Emily was taking heaving breaths, as if there was not enough air in the world.

“Fine.” As much as that particular couple never discussed the event again, it did set a precedent. From then on, educators, scholars and such were no longer safe. Nobody was, really.

Nothing can quite describe the drive a teenager has to ensure their own success, once the social limitation of only teenage murder was removed, it took far too little time for all the youth to get on board.

It took two years for the entire’s town population to be reduced to 50. The remaining survivors made a pact, to never kill for knowledge again.

Though, it stands to reason that this pact could only last so long...


End file.
